WASHINGTON — Interviews with two IRS agents involved in targeting Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny show the agents likely got their marching orders from Washington, a powerful House committee chairman charged yesterday.

“This administration is still trying to say there’s a few rogue agents in Cincinnati, when, in fact, the indication is they were being directly ordered from Washington,” Issa said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Congressional investigators interviewed the two front-line agents, one of whom said the move to single out the conservative groups was sent from Washington in March 2010.

“We have to submit many, many reports so the chance of two agents being rogue and doing things like that couldn’t happen,” the unidentified employee said in pieces of transcripts released by the committee.

Seven reports on the groups were dispatched to Washington, the agent said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, yesterday called Issa’s allegation “reckless.” The inspector general who uncovered the practice last month found no link to Washington, Cummings said.